CHICAGO GAY AND LESBIAN HALL OF FAME 2001 City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations Richard M. Daley Clarence N. Wood Mayor Chair/Commissioner Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues William W. Greaves Laura A. Rissover Director/Community Liaison Chairperson Ó 2001 Hall of Fame Committee. All rights reserved. COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues 740 North Sedgwick Street, 3rd Floor Chicago, Illinois 60610 312.744.7911 (VOICE) 312.744.1088 (CTT/TDD) Www.GLHallofFame.org 1 2 3 CHICAGO GAY AND LESBIAN HALL OF FAME The Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame is both a historic event and an exhibit. Through the Hall of Fame, residents of Chicago and our country are made aware of the contributions of Chicago's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) communities and the communities’ efforts to eradicate homophobic bias and discrimination. With the support of the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations, the Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues established the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in June 1991. The inaugural induction ceremony took place during Pride Week at City Hall, hosted by Mayor Richard M. Daley. This was the first event of its kind in the country. The Hall of Fame recognizes the volunteer and professional achievements of people of the LGBT communities, their organizations, and their friends, as well as their contributions to their communities and to the city of Chicago. This is a unique tribute to dedicated individuals and organizations whose services have improved the quality of life for all of Chicago's citizens. Induction into the Hall of Fame symbolizes that the recipient either has made a contribution with far-reaching effects on the quality of life for Chicago's LGBT communities or the city of Chicago, or has made a significant long-term contribution to the well-being of Chicago's LGBT communities. The selection of inductees for the Hall of Fame is made by former recipients of the award based on nominations from the general public. The Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame is privately funded through generous donations from individuals, businesses, and organizations. Staff support is provided by the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations, members of the Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues, and volunteers. A site on the World Wide Web (www.GLHallofFame.org) has been established and maintained by the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. 4 2001 PLANNING COMMITTEE CHICAGO GAY AND LESBIAN HALL OF FAME Gary G. Chichester Chairperson Chuck Cox Jack Delaney Selection Committee Co-Chairperson Philip Hannema William B. Kelley Mary F. Morten Selection Committee Co-Chairperson Dean Ogren Kasey Reese 5 2001 INDUCTEES CHICAGO GAY AND LESBIAN HALL OF FAME Lora Branch Robert Castillo Keith Elliott Frank Goley and Robert Maddox Chuck Hyde Antonio David Jimenez Michael A. Leppen Ellen A. Meyers Kathryn Munzer Sara Feigenholtz Friend of the Community Studs Terkel Friend of the Community Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus 6 LORA BRANCH video producer who has combined her communications skills with a career in Apublic health administration, Lora Branch has quickly achieved visibility as an openly lesbian Chicago public official. Since December 1999, she has served in the Chicago Department of Public Health, where she is currently director of its Office of Lesbian and Gay Health. While in that position, she PHOTO: ISRAEL WRIGHT wrote and produced a 60-minute video drama, Kevin’s Room, that has been highly praised and exhibited nationwide. It discussed issues of HIV/AIDS among African American gay men, and it featured several local actors and performance artists. Previously, she was the department’s director of Capacity Building for STD/HIV/AIDS Public Policy and Programs. Before her present tenure with the department, she spent one year as director of grantmaking and community education for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. During an earlier period with the department’s HIV/AIDS Public Policy and Programs Division from 1996 to 1998, she coordinated youth programs, worked with public schools and youth agencies to reduce teenage health risks, and provided staff assistance for the Chicago HIV Prevention Planning Group. Between 1991 and 1996, she was director of HIV programs at the Westside Association for Community Action and was regional coordinator of the Coalition on Adolescent Risk Reduction. Branch honed her video skills as a volunteer cable television producer for the Chicago Access Corporation’s CAN-TV, where she helped to make Chicagoans aware of the public-access opportunities the corporation offers and helped to educate young persons of color about the need for HIV/AIDS prevention. Since 1992, Branch has been a Chicago Black Lesbians and Gays steering committee member, cochairing the group during part of that time. From 1995 to 1997 she was a Horizons Community Services board member, helping to guide an organization that offered programs in which she had taken part during her own adolescence and coming-out period. She now serves on a Horizons advisory panel. Branch is a Chicago native. She has a bachelor of arts degree from Columbia College and has studied in a master’s degree program in public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. 7 ROBERT CASTILLO obert Castillo has worked tirelessly over the past 10 years on issues with an impact Ron the LGBTQA community, of which he self-identifies as a queer Latino member. The acronym (which can appear with its letters in various orders) today is often used to denote persons who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, who are questioning their sexual orientation, or who are allies of those groups. The Q is sometimes also taken as denoting the self-identity of queer. When referring to a community, many currently regard such usages as politically preferable to terms such as “gay,” “lesbian and gay,” “gay and lesbian,” “lesbigay,” or “sexual minority.” Castillo’s activist career has been characterized by a similar close attention to the political implications of word and deed. Castillo’s organizational affiliations have been wide-ranging, including Queer Nation Chicago; ACT UP/Chicago; Northeastern Illinois University Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Alliance (which he cochaired); Association of Latin Men for Action (ALMA); ¡Ambiente Pa’lante! (which he cofounded); LLEGÓ, The National Latina/o Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Organization; Coalition for Positive Sexuality; the Chicago chapter of Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Veterans of America; Logan Square Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Neighbors; People of Color Coalition; Emergency Clinic Defense Coalition; Horizons Community Services’ Antiviolence Project; and the Chicago Commission on Human Relations’ Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues (ACGLI). He has also contributed to the periodicals En La Vida and Logan’s Queer News, both of which he helped to create. Castillo has always been an activist member of such groups. As examples, the first case involving sexual orientation that proceeded under the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance included Castillo and his partner, John Pennycuff, who were arrested with others after dancing as same-sex couples in a suburban bar. Earlier, Castillo had helped to organize demonstrations and testimony to demand passage of the ordinance. He helped to organize and publicize antiviolence marches. He arranged Queer Nation Chicago’s participation in the Loop’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. He assembled openly queer Latino/a contingents in the People’s Puerto Rican Parade and the 26th Street Mexican Independence Day Parade, and he marched with similar path-breaking groups in those parades’ Loop counterparts. He organized history, hate crimes, HIV/AIDS, and neighborhood events. While chairing ACGLI’s Advocacy Committee, he oversaw forums on bisexual and transgender issues and a yearly Pride Month event that brought activists, politicians, and community members together. He introduced an ACGLI resolution in favor of amending city human rights laws to include gender identity and expression, which was adopted by ACGLI and its parent commission, and he organized a community Latina/o event cosponsored by ACGLI where sexual- minority persons openly participated. All of Castillo’s activism has occurred before his 35th birthday. It is already a striking record. 8 KEITH ELLIOTT hicago’s annual “Dance for Life” HIV/AIDS fund-raiser, now in its 10th Cyear, developed from an idea of Keith Elliott’s. Having been a principal dancer with the Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre, Elliott felt deeply the loss of fellow dancers and friends from the disease. He thought of a way to help. Elliott decided to gather Chicago’s leading professional dance companies on one stage, for PHOTO: ISRAEL WRIGHT one evening only, to benefit HIV/AIDS organizations and promote the art of dance. Local dancers answered his call promptly and enthusiastically. Chicago Dancers United was formed to plan the future of “Dance for Life.” As a member of the board that oversees “Dance for Life,” Elliott has produced the benefit part of the event 6 times and has produced the performance all 10 times. In its third year, “Dance for Life” became the Midwest’s largest performance- based HIV/AIDS benefit. It has sold out for 10 years running, and a record high of $300,000 was predicted to be raised at this year’s August 25 event. More than $1.5 million had already been raised since the beginning. Master classes benefiting “Dance for Life” were also established by Elliott. The Chicago area’s top choreographers participate in a daylong series of workshops that hundreds of dance students can attend. Elliott also has helped to coordinate “Dance Divas,” an evening of female impersonation by male professional dancers at the Baton Show Lounge to benefit “Dance for Life.” In addition, Elliott has participated in and helped to coordinate “Youth in Action,” which is Wheeling High School’s mini-“Dance for Life” event, and he founded “Sure They Can Dance, But Can They Sing?” as an evening of vocal styling by some of Chicago’s top professional dancers.